Richard D Arnold wrote:
> Also, what the heck is it with LBCs that causes one to want to
> acquire so many?
Several things have occurred to me throughout my years of LBC ownership:
1. The Car Wardrobe factor. Depending on how complex one's life is, it
may become desirable to have separate cars, each optimized for different
activities. For example, a Spridget is the perfect car for driving on
sunny days through winding forest roads, the shadows through the
sycamore leaves rippling and blending off the graceful curves of the
fenders, the mixed exhaust note and gear whine echoing off the boles of
ancient redwoods. Add some rain and cold into the equation, and an
MGB-GT might reasonably be considered a better choice. Add snow and ice
and, well, a Jensen FF gives you all wheel drive to keep the tyres
planted in unplowed roads. Then there's the vintage race car, and while
many vehicles could satisfy the itch, I'm partial (at least in my
imagination) to the Lotus Seven in any of its variants. And you have to
get that to the track (and to the machine shop and to the garage of your
friend with the welding equipment and etc. etc.etc.), so you buy a
sensible tow car like an XJ-S. No one of these cars could do all the
things that the entire collection could do, and, well, you *have* to do
all these things, don't you?
2. The I'll-drive-this-while-I-restore-that factor. We all know how
THAT goes... It starts when the throwout bearing fails on your beloved
Spridget, and seeing as the entire car must basically be dismantled to
get to the bearing, we realize we'll need ANOTHER car to drive while the
first one gets taken apart and put back together. So we go out and buy
a slightly ratty chrome-bumper MGB or something (can't be too nice or we
won't be motivated to keep working on the Spridget), start disconnecting
the flywheel bolts in the Spridget, and then the weather turns and it
starts raining and we try to put the top up on the B, only to find out
that it's basically more holes than top. So while the reasonable thing
to do would be to go spend $250 on a new Robbins top, we go out and find
a GT6 to drive while the weather's bad, figuring we'll do the B's top
after we get the Spridget's clutch replaced (because you KNOW that as
long as you've got the motor out to do the throwout bearing, you might
as well replace the pressure plate and friction disc too, and as long as
THAT'S out, you might as well rebuild the slave cylinder, and in the
meanwhile the only actual WORK you've performed on the car is to
disconnect the earth strap on the battery and loosen the starter
bolts.) Then spring finally rolls around and it's just too damn *nice*
to keep driving the GT6 any more, and you get an email from somebody on
the Spridgets list who is selling a clean Mk. III ("needs paint and
carpets") for real cheap, and you figure that if you had another
Spridget to drive in the nice weather, it'd make you hurry up on the
clutch rebuild of your *first* Spridget (which already *has* nice paint
and carpets), on which you've now done the added bonus work of pulling
the wire from the coil to the distributor to make it easier to pull the
engine any time now (and you figure you can bring home the engine hoist
from the rental agent's in the back of the GT6, after all, when you get
a free weekend). At one point, this line of reasoning led to my owning
a '74 Midget, a '67 Morris Mini Traveler, a '67 Lotus Cortina, a '59
Bugeye Sprite, the transaxle out of a '69 Austin America, and, of all
things, a then-new Ford Mustang SVO -- which was the least sensible
American sporty-muscle-oid car that it was then possible to acquire.
Made cool whoop-de-whoop noises when you shifted, though.
3. The fact that we're all bloody lunatics. Ever see "Braveheart"?
You know the scene where Stephen, the Irish mercenary, introduces
himself to William Wallace, says "Besides, I'm crazy," and Wallace,
Hamish, and his other lieutenants give each other sidelong glances, and
then little by little everyone in the circle of men starts laughing this
weird laugh of brotherhood?
Yep, that's us.
BTW -- today, May 6, 1999, is the day of Scotland's first free elections
since the Battle of Stirling, or something. Alba go bragh!
--Scott "I draw the line at having haggis for dinner, though" Fisher
Sunnyvale, CA
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